You May Not Be Who You Think You Are.
You may not be who you think you are.
Max du Preez book makes for fascinating reading and is a history of events and people who helped shape who we as South African’s are today. It is also an indictment against all who do not recognize that not only has our true origins been sanitized by a racist and supremacist agenda but aside from this deliberate act we are one huge family and for more closely related than we care to admit. Perhaps if the real history of South Africa was and is taught we would be reluctant to behave in the racist manner we do.
Saddled with the burden of apartheid and colonial-slanted textbooks, South Africans have tended to take their identities from their political leanings. But so-called “mixed marriages” are as old as South Africa itself. And more people are finding family tree research the key to understanding their own heritages.
Krotoa of the Goringhaicona a freed Khoi slave is the Stamouder of well known Afrikaners such as Paul Kruger, Jan Smuts and FW de Klerk. What is significant she was a slave in Jan Van Riebecks home and was only freed when she married a Danish soldier and explorer Pieter van Meerhof on the 26th April 1664 and was the first recorded marriage of slave and a so called Christian. Other well known Afrikaners who were of mixed race were. General Louis Botha, Andries Pretorius, Piet Retief and even the late ultra conservative Andries Treurnicht to name just a few.
One of the bittersweet ironies of Afrikaner culture and history is that -- despite being intimately associated with the philosophy of white supremacy and white ‘purity’ -- many of them are actually mixed-race. In fact non-European make DNA makes up for 6% of 90% of the Afrikaner population.
Another fascinating character in Maz du Preez’s book is Jan Gerritze Bantjies His Grandfather Jan Geert Bantijes married Agnita Jacobs daughter of two slaves Jan Jacobs van die Kaap and Agnietjie Pieters van die Kaap
Jan Gerritze Bantjes was born in Graaff-Reinet district. He was a member of Voortrekker leader Jacob de Clercq's group who arrived at Blesberg, in the present-day Orange Free State, during the Great Trek in 1837. He was appointed secretary to the provisional Voortrekker administration which had been elected just before his arrival at the Vet River. On occasion he acted as Clerk to the Natal Volksraad, and on being appointed secretary to Comdt.-Gen. Andries Pretorius, (Also of mixed race) he kept the Journal of the 'Winkommando', a document which is now of historical importance. His most important legacy is the manuscript of the treaty between Piet Retief and Zulu King Dingane in his handwriting. Bantjes also served the Voortrekkers in a teaching capacity, and the later presidents Paul Kruger and Marthinus Wessel Pretorius received their first education from him. (http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jan-gerritze-bantjes )
Another Afrikaner who left his mark in more was than one way was Coenraad Buys. Another fascinating Afrikaner figure in South African history. Through a sequence of Xhosa, White , Khoi and Tswana wives Coenraad is thought to have had around 3000 grandchildren and is a prominent ancestor of Xhosa, Khoi, Coloured and White South Africans.
Probably his most famous wife was Yese, the wife of Mlawu KaRarabe were he became King Nqqika's main advisor. He also took a Thembu wife, Elizabeth, and had many children with her. During this time Coenraad was one of a number of white and coloured people who were on the Xhosa side in the frontier wars against the Boers and then the British.
From 1799 the Rharhabe chief Ngcika (also known as Ngqika and Gaika)’s "Great Place" was shared by his erstwhile friend "Khula" or Coenraad De Buys. This place was apparently in the Tyumi river valley, just south of Hogsback.
Buys left the Xhosa to eventually settle in what is Buy’s Dorp in the Soutpansberg were his current day descendants live.
The Xhosa people also have a strong presence of Khoi, European and Asian ancestry and in particular the abeLungu and amaMolo clans among Xhosa speaking people. These two clans are part of the Xhosa speaking community of South Africa, however these clans are descendants of English and Asian castaways who were shipwrecked and stranded on the Eastern coastal areas (near Port St. Johns) of South Africa during the period of 1500 to 1800. Their forebears, after being stranded, had to integrate with the locals, marry and mate with them, thus explaining the existence of the abeLungu and amaMolo clans.
The Abelungu Clan is mostly traced to three white castaways called Jekwa, Hatu, and Badi who were given these indigenous names after they integrated and married the indigenous people in the eastern coast of South Africa. These three men are the ones who have been visible through oral and written historical accounts, although they are not the only people whom the clan originates from. There are several other forebears.
Oral history claims that both the progenitors of amaMolo were of Asian descent, thus they are linked to Bhatia and Pita as their non African forebears.
Legend has it that the people who integrated with the indigenous people in the eastern coastal area of South Africa arrived in strange ships carrying men in white headdresses and long flowing robes. It is reported that they arrived way before the arrival of the Europeans.
The name amaMolo, according to Xhosa(mpondo) oral history was given to this clan because their progenitors could only say and knew one word of Xhosa – “Molo”. AmaMolo, despite their Asian ancestral roots, are said to consider themselves part of abeLungu as they have integrated themselves into their Western cultural ways.
The NRY (Non-combining Region of Y, chromosome) analysis has helped to correlate both oral and written history claims, hence those who seem to have descended from Bhatia shared the same Y- haplogroup- R198 which is common across Europe and Asia. Pita’s descendants shared a haplogroup-Q242 commonly found in Asia thus one or both of the amaMolo progenitors were of Asian origins.
The NRY analysis on the abeLungu clan shows how most of them are of European descent with regards to the Y chromosome (Wikipedia)
Researchers have found that 90% of so called white South Africans who can trace their ancestors back to pre-1803-7 have mixed ancestry and it’s likely that only very recent European immigrants do not. Even this does not mean every European immigrant is 100% European, Recently my brother had his DNA done and we discovered 20% of our family’s DNA is of Asian and Middle East origin. I am sure we can’t be the only ones who have this mix who are considered European in South Africa.
One of these later immigrants was the infamous Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd who was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on 8 September 1901 and whose parents immigrated to South Africa in 1903. Whilst he was not the founder in chief of racial segregation (This started long before in 1652) he certainly was the chief architect of apartheid. He was not the only foreign born apartheid leader. Jimmy Kruger was born in Wales and was adopted by Afrikaner parents. He is best remembered for his infamous comment at the death or rather murder of Steve Biko at the hands of the security police whilst he was minister. Kruger's response to Biko's death was: "Dit laat my koud." ("It leaves me cold.")
I guess what the point here is that sadly it appears as if the racial conflict in South Africa has been for centuries largely a family affair. If your cousins, parents, brothers and sisters are of a different pigmentation or shade then they have been banished and pushed to the fringes of society often treated as sub-humans and subjected the brutal oppression. The Freedom Charter clearly states that “Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger “ not such a bad idea especially considering South African’s are by enlarge one big family and that racial bias is a construct of the mind. Next time to you use racist terms remember you may be insulting a cousin or close family member you were not even aware you are related to. Even worse you are insulting yourself.
This is just a brief account. Go dig and do some research. Our actual history is far more complex that you can ever imagine.
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